adjective
-
resembling a spike
-
having a spike or spikes
-
informal ill-tempered
-
characterized by violent or aggressive methods
spiky protestors
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of spiky
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Slow Horses, now in its sixth season, has been an Emmy-nominated success, and, after a brief absence, Eleazar has returned to playing the spiky Louisa Guy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
The contrasting styles and materials of the individual elements elevate each work into an invigorating whole—a pensive portrait, for example, is given a frisson of danger thanks to the spiky crab shells that surround it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Santana’s Marisol, likable yet spiky, anchors the revival.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
The fall 2026 collection from Georgian brand Lado Bokuchava is a silver grommet fantasia, and Hodakova has been making elegantly articulated spiky clothing for a number of seasons now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
His heart went from squeezing to thumping too hard when he recognized Josie’s familiar spiky handwriting on the paper.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The spikier “Tongue” is the other rocker, whose arrangement is a blend of syncopated drum breaks, squelching keyboards and drones built on feedback and distortion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
So much of his spikier music deserves attention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
I do know it has a "fun mode", for spikier responses - was it messing with me?
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2024
Act 2, “Visitor From Hollywood,” is a spikier, shorter segue into satire.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 29, 2022
So maybe Petey was a little spikier during the day.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
On set or onstage, she will throw herself into the scrappiest, spikiest, ugliest facets of any part, without ego or undue seriousness.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2021
Shirley, director Josephine Decker’s new film about a few months in the life of the writer Shirley Jackson, aims to resemble a Shirley Jackson story of the very spikiest variety.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2020
But with “Jessica Jones,” which returns March 8 for a second season, she is able to let the spikiest elements of her imagination run amok.
From New York Times ● Mar. 2, 2018
Elegantly observed and hysterically funny, it is Rich's spikiest work to date, sidestepping his usual romantic softness in favour of addressing tensions between Brooklyn's hipster excesses and Herschel's desperate poverty.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 16, 2013
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
